Chasing Manet

GRADE: C/C-

By Tina Howe. Directed by Michael Wilson. 59E59. (CLOSED)

A few critics enjoyed Tina Howe's play about two dissimilar elderly women plotting an escape from their nursing home to Paris, but most found it to be a lesser version of her other works. Critics are also divided on the merits of Michael Wilson's direction. The highlights of the play, even for the naysayers, are Jane Alexander's performance as the angrier and more together of the two women, and a monologue (performed by David Margulies) considered by most critics to be much more poetic than anything else in the play.

Back Stage A-
(David Sheward) Yes, the plot is implausible, ridiculous, and even sitcom-level simple. Yet Howe endows this corny premise with a poetic beauty as images both absurd and dazzling cascade from the dialogue. In one masterful example, Howe constructs a long scene of fascinating contrasts. Rennie's large family is visiting. Catherine suddenly opens up and explains the importance of her favorite painting, Manet's Le Dejeuner sur L'Herbe, which hangs over her bed. After her erudite and passionate lecture, the Waltzers enthuse over a nephew's TV commercial for a furrier featuring minks riding in a Viennese gondola to the accompaniment of Vivaldi's Gloria. The painting and the kitschy ad both have meaning to those describing them, and Howe treats each with humor and respect.

TONY B+
(David Cote) We have a couple of weeks before the opening of the Roundabout's Waiting for Godot, but if you want to see a more intimate Godot-inflected new play—with women, no less—you could try Tina Howe's nursing-home fantasia Chasing Manet. It's far less bitter and bleak, but there's a strain of existential dread running through the old-ladies-talking-dirty shtick. Irresistible alternative title: Waiting for Geritol.

American Theater Web B+
(Andy Propst) If it sounds like "Manet" might be a bit like a distaff, gray-haired take on Neil Simon's "The Odd Couple," it is. But only on some levels. At its core, though, "Manet" is richer than Simon's legendary comedy and examines how people, and Catherine in particular, shape their own destinies and particularly as they face their mortality... For all of its successes, though, "Manet" does feel as if it could benefit from an even more heightened production from director Michael Wilson. His staging feels almost too reserved, and thus, Rennie's bizarre, almost absurdist, malapropisms – delivered capably by the winning Cohen – sometimes feel overly cute or worse as if they are cruelly making fun of the woman's illness, rather than being a natural part of this piece that dares to look at the process of aging and death with simultaneous clear sightedness, gentle bemusement and a healthy dose of surrealist whimsy.

DC Theatre Scene B+
(Richard Seff) Staged by Michael Wilson (who last season guided Horton Foote’s Dividing the Estate at this same theatre, and later on Broadway), the play concludes on a rather false note, tidying everything up and delivering a socko happy ending. It does send the audience out in a cheery mood, but I thought the play deserved something more believable, more rueful. Ms. Howe knows her characters; one suspects she’s experienced the nursing home scene first hand, and there aren’t many neatly happy endings in them. But for them as likes excellent dialogue, an interesting and topical theme, two star turns, magical acting and a crackerjack production, I suggest you join Alexander and Cohen in their pursuit of happiness.

CurtainUp B-
(Elyse Sommer) Naturally, it takes a capable cast, especially for the Catherine Sargent role, to give Howe's mix of stark reality and quirky fantasy a chance to work. Fortunately Jane Alexander, seen all too rarely on the New York stage these, is on hand as the lead. While she's 69 and looks younger, Alexander manages to be reasonably convincing as a woman in her eighties and be the seething cauldron of anger, despair, wry humor and determination the script calls for. As her roommate and fellow conspirator, Lynn Cohen, is quite touching as the cheery, out of her mind Rennie but the script over-milks her dementia prompted lunacy in order to ramp up the laughs and improbability of this getaway actually succeeding. Director Michael Wilson firmly and seamlessly steers the four excellent members of the support cast through some twenty roles. Julie Halston transitions between a nutty Mount Airy resident and Rennie's devoted and daughter. Jack Gilpin morphs from Catherine's well-intentioned, poetry reciting son to a wheelchair-bound dirty old man. Vanessa Aspillaga and Bob Riley play two attendants as well as others, including Waltzer family members; and the always reliable David Margulies does his best to individualize his share of the multiple assignments.

Associated Press B-
(Jennifer Farrar) The play has boisterous moments, and witty dialogue, although the first act, which ends with some characters weeping inconsolably, is also frank and darkly realistic as to the limits of Catherine and Rennie's capabilities. Then Act 2 inexplicably becomes an often-farcical sequence of improbable events. It's hard to reconcile the two parts. Howe's concept may be unclear, but the wit of her writing, strong performances and the persistence of the human spirit are all admirably on display here.

Nytheatre.com C+
(Robin Rothstein) Chasing Manet has an inspirational message at its core concerning the potential that lives in us all, no matter what the barriers, to defy expectations and take action to attain our dreams. Unfortunately, though, Howe spends more time weighing the play down in tired jokes and overly-superficial depictions associated with nursing home life at the expense of forwarding the central action. Act Two holds more dramatic tension and original juicy fun as the escape plan moves more front and center. This is also when the play reaches its comedic potential and the essence of its theme is more consistently and effectively articulated. Howe does a nice job keeping you guessing about whether or not the QE2 reservations are, in fact, real, and if the two women will be able to conjure up, and successfully execute, a viable escape plan. The results are a true surprise. Criticisms aside, what is clear throughout is that Howe has written Chasing Manet with relish, allowing herself to just have a good ol' time.


Bloomberg News C+
(John Simon) With “Chasing Manet,” Howe bites off too much, leaving everything a bit pallidly foreshortened, not to say etiolated. Moreover, Rennie is far too inconsistent to be credible: jocular when the play wants a lovable zany, sober enough when Catherine’s plotted escape to Paris and the world of her beloved Manet requires a racy co-conspirator. But that is not to fault the savvy director, Michael Wilson. Nor Alexander, a wonderfully aristocratic Catherine and Cohen, a vivaciously gemutlich Rennie. They act up merry minor storms amid artificially breezy doldrums.

Village Voice C
(Michael Feingold) Cohen is delightful and the supporting cast enchanting whenever Howe's lunatic verbal reveries take over; Alexander, a total class act, takes resplendent histrionic advantage of both reality and wordplay, but even she can't sustain two full acts of their unwieldy mixture.

Lighting & Sound America C-
(David Barbour) Howe is certainly capable of striking effects. It's easy to be amused by Catherine's bizarre appearance at an art class -- wearing painted sunglasses and fake spots of blood on her face, pretending to be Oedipus -- even as you wonder how she pulled off the gag in her invalid state. Alternatively, there times when the action freezes into a tableau of chaos, riven by the cacophonous cries of needy, confused old people. And there's a quietly beautiful sequence in a physical therapy class when an elderly man, heretofore lost in his own world, rouses himself to describe, in vivid detail, his work on an archeological dig. But Chasing Manet never settles on a point of view, preferring to leap from situation comedy gagging to Beckettian melancholy to wounding family confrontations in such a jittery manner that it's impossible to settle in and enjoy Howe's writing. The tone is sweet and sour, fierce and fey, pitiless in its assessment of the losses imposed by age and yet farcical and flighty. This isn't entirely surprising -- Howe has been pursuing her own specialized form of absurdism for decades -- but here it comes across as a kind of attention deficit disorder; the author's restlessness keeps us from getting caught up in her story.

The New York Times C-
(Ben Brantley) Like many of Ms. Howe’s plays, “Chasing Manet” celebrates human (and particularly female) eccentricity and willfulness, even in the shadow of death. But the quirks assigned to the characters here all feel preowned (as the car vendors say), as does the gimmick-driven plot. But you decide. You can determine whether “Chasing Manet” is your kind of play from a single-sentence synopsis, the kind script writers pitch to studio executives: Two ladies in a nursing home — one Jewish, one high WASP; one in a wheelchair, the other legally blind — come up with the idea of combining their resources and running away to Paris on the QE2. Still with me? I wish I could report that “Chasing Manet” is much more than my studio sales pitch. This production, directed by Michael Wilson and also starring Lynn Cohen, does occasionally stick its toes into the dark and icy waters of what it means to feel old and abandoned. But more often it just glides across the surface, trailing a twinkly string of cultural references and slender psychological insights.

New York Post D+
(Frank Scheck) The malapropism-prone Rennie suggests a plan: "We create a division -- then we make a break for it while everyone's distilled." And so goes most of the humor in an evening that alternately depicts the home's elderly as horrifically addled and comically wacky. It's the kind of play designed to appeal to those who find the phrase "stool softener" hilarious. To be fair, there are moments in which "Chasing Manet" reaches the lyrical beauty to which it aspires. These occur when Howe allows her characters to reveal their humanity -- when Catherine tells the fascinating backstory of Manet's famed painting "Le Dejeuner sur l'Herbe," and when another resident (David Margulies) snaps out of his fogginess just long enough to passionately describe his experiences as an archaeologist working in the Fertile Crescent.

The Daily News D
(Joe Dziemianowicz) The show's pleasures come from the fine cast. Vanessa Aspillaga, Julie Halston, David Margulies and Rob Riley do double duty as Rennie's relatives and nursing home residents. Cohen, in wig and florals that scream Sophia from "The Golden Girls," is appealingly batty as a woman who blinks in and out of lucidity. Hopefully, the actress known as Miranda's housekeeper on "Sex and the City" goes to some far-off mental state when Rennie mentions "stool softener" (ugh) and feigns sexual arousal in her wheelchair (double ugh). The always classy Alexander has a distinguished career that stretches from stage and film to the NEA. She's perfectly cast as a woman of distinction who's feisty to the end, but even with her best efforts, "Chasing Manet" is a trivial pursuit.

Theatermania D-
(Patrick Lee) Howe hasn't done enough on the page to depict a growing fondness between the two women, so the actresses can hardly be faulted that it doesn't get adequately communicated and that their relationship remains hard to believe in and root for. Still, by giving her just the right amount of impatience and a touch of grandeur, Alexander makes Catherine entirely believable as a once-celebrated artist whose confinement has darkened her spirit. The character can be cold and rough, and her nasty candor is the only thing in the play that gives it some friction, but Alexander doesn't turn her into a one-dimensional bitter old biddie. Cohen, in the far more static role of Rennie, isn't given the chance to find as many layers. Michael Wilson's staging sometimes seems limited by Tony Straiges' set design, essentially three neutral tan walls of Catherine and Rennie's furnished room set back to clear two areas, one downstage and one along stage right, to serve undressed as all else. Wheelchairs are suspended overhead for no discernible reason. A twice-used sound effect of crashing wheelchairs is poorly executed.

Variety F+
(Sam Thielman) Tina Howe's "Chasing Manet" almost makes you envy its mentally ill characters the good fortune of not knowing where they are. Everyone else in the theater is aware they're watching a bad example of the nursing home drama -- a genre that, by definition, does not have much life left in it. With the exception of one interesting monologue, beautifully delivered by David Margulies, the play falls flat, cut off at the knees by embarrassingly sketchy characterizations and Michael Wilson's tone-deaf direction.

Talk Entertainment F+
(Oscar E Moore) In Tina Howe’s very slight, nursing home escapism epic, Chasing Manet, which is now playing at Primary Stages, we are supposed to suspend our belief of real people doing real things. These characters are not real. They are allegorical figures – representing the idea of escaping – the idea that if you want to get out of any said situation there is a means and that you should go for it as life is all too short, especially if you are in a nursing home where old people are sent to die. Anyone who has had anyone close who has had to be admitted into a nursing home will find this play to be totally implausible.

Offoffonline F
(Edward Karam) Howe’s plot and tone combine and The Golden Girls, with Cohen playing a role akin to the dotty Sophia in that sitcom, and Catherine as an acid Beatrice Arthur. Rennie is full of malapropisms—“division” for “diversion,” “pottery” for “poetry”—and she grins and goes off on loopy outbursts. Nevertheless, Catherine hatches a plan with Rennie to escape. They’re going to “chase Manet,” as it were—to do their own thing and head for Paris. One is supposed to cheer their indomitable spirits, but it’s hard when the drama is so contrived. Then, too, Howe indulges in the facile comic maneuver of having old people swear like today’s teenagers to get a laugh. Catherine calls a “Bronx cheer” vulgar, but moments later is dropping the F-bomb on poor Royal. Catherine rhapsodizes about being caught by her ex-husband in flagrante delicto with a younger art student—classy, isn’t that? And Catherine is also cruel. “Beauty was never your strong suit,” she tells Royal, in one of her offhand observations. By the time Howe has the two senior citizens singing an anthem to stool softener, you’ll be itching for social services to close down this institution.

Talkin' Broadway F
(Matthew Murray) Howe undoubtedly intended the play to be a loving tribute to the smile-worthy whims of the aged, to prove that the vivacity, resourcefulness, and world-changing bravura Manet captured in his scandalous 1863 “Luncheon on the Grass” - which depicts a nude woman seated in a park with two fully clothed men, and a copy of which holds pride of place above Catherine’s bed - need not be confined strictly to the young. But the overall effect is one that’s far less inspirational than it is crass, grating, and downright mean-spirited. Aspillaga’s and Riley’s characters are rampantly indifferent, the assorted seniors are more like on-the-lam Bellevue inmates than fading octogenarians, and Catherine is so bitchy and Rennie so one-note annoying that they don’t ease the absorption of all the snivelingly facile characterizations and story half-twists. The use of too-young and too-vibrant actors as Catherine and Rennie’s demented floormates is always belittling and usually insulting... If not for Alexander, there would be nothing appealing about this show. But, unlike everyone else onstage, she does occasionally evince vague hints of maturity, and brings a focused intelligence and lets you observe the faint wisps of torment that drive Catherine.

Back Stage A- 13; TONY B+ 11; American Theater Web B+ 11; DC Theatre Scene B+ 11; CurtainUp B- 9; Associated Press B- 9; Nytheatre.com C+ 8; Bloomberg News C+ 8; Village Voice C 7; Lighting & Sound America C- 6; The New York Times C- 6; New York Post D+ 5; The Daily News D 4; Theatermania D- 3; Variety F+ 2; Talk Entertainment F+ 2; Offoffonline F 1; Talkin' Broadway F 1; TOTAL: 117/18 = 6.5 (C/C-)

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Shipwrecked! An Entertainment

GRADE: B+

By Donald Margulies. Directed by Lisa Peterson. Primary Stages at 59E59. (CLOSED)

Most critics swoon over Michael Countryman's lead performance in Donald Margulies' transparent story-theater yarn about the nature of storytelling and theatrical artifice. They tend to be more divided on the fantastical play itself, and specifically on whether its story-theater approach--with all ancillary roles, and many sound effects, created by the resourceful Jeremy Bobb and Donnetta Lavinia Grays--is invigorating meta-theater or dangerously close to children's fare. And Talkin' Broadway's Matthew Murray comes up with an interesting new oxymoron for Countryman: "blandly compelling."

Bloomberg News A+
(John Simon) Equally effective as rousing adventure tale for youngsters and challenging comedy for adults...Margulies’s adaptation is vivid and vastly entertaining. Who is to dispute artistic truth’s being at least tantamount to the historic kind? Especially when, as here, the art is not only in the wonderfully graphic, pointed and suspenseful words, but also in the most resourceful acting, direction, design, music and fabulous sound effects, courtesy of the Primary Stages production...Devised by John Gromada, these sounds -- natural phenomena, lusty human and animalkind, wave-swept shore and bustling metropolis -- are almost worth the price of admission.

Variety A
(Marilyn Stasio) Slight, but nonetheless enchanting feat of old-fashioned storytelling...Margulies ("Sight Unseen," "Dinner With Friends") makes no apologies for the stripped-down nature of his new piece. On the contrary, he makes the art of bare-bones storytelling both the subject of his work and the style of its dramatic treatment. It's a story about storytelling, and what it does is tell a story...Countryman is one of those open-faced actors who, whatever role they happen to be playing, always strike you as honest...The wonderful thing about Countryman's performance, as directed with intelligence and wit by Lisa Patterson, is that he doesn't use vocal tricks or body contortions to effect the transformations undergone by de Rougemont during the course of his picaresque adventures. Letting the story speak for itself, he draws us into the magical realm of his imagination.

Associated Press A
(Jennifer Farrar) Michael Countryman's wide-eyed, boyish charm is ingratiating, as he leaps about the stage portraying de Rougemont, enthusiastically telling his life in chapters...Jeremy Bobb is hilarious as de Rougemont's loyal dog Bruno, among other roles, and nearly stops the show when he briefly appears as a famous British personage. Donnetta Lavinia Grays is equally adept at giving genuine characterization to each of her roles...Lisa Peterson directs these three talented actors, who work their magic on Neil Patel's brilliantly simple, round platform of a set...This old-fashioned approach to storytelling works perfectly, involving the audience to such a degree that, when de Rougemont's tales of fabulous adventures are eventually punctured by self-righteous, 19th century British scientists and journalists, the audience becomes as downcast as Louis himself.

Village Voice A
(Michael Feingold) Through Lisa Peterson's speedy, ingenious production, Margulies supplies the sheer fun of theatrical storytelling, complete with acrobatic stunts, musical effects, and the inventiveness of two supporting actors, Donnetta Lavinia Grays and Jeremy Bobb, who have to embody everything from a dog and a parrot to an old sea captain and Queen Victoria. Countryman, a fine actor usually trapped in drab secondary roles, seizes this leading-man opportunity with irresistible panache; Grays is heartfelt as his aboriginal love; and Bobb makes such an adorable dog that I'd adopt him as a pet myself if I thought Equity and the ASPCA would approve.

Theatermania A
(Barbara & Scott Siegel) The tale we're told by Louis de Rougemont (Michael Countryman) is as colorful as it is fanciful. Better yet, it is told in a unique combination of bold strokes and subtle subtext that weaves a greater meaning into the play, making it ultimately a poignant embrace of our need to imagine...It's at the height of Louis' fame that the play suddenly changes gears. From thereon, Shipwrecked turns from engaging artifice into breathtaking art. Countryman gives a splendid performance that is as deliciously broad as it is tenderly nuanced...In short, Shipwrecked! simply and beautifully sails!

Total Theater A
(Simon Saltzman) A clever and diverting family “entertainment”...this sublimely staged and performed narrative has more to offer than many a spectacle-filled theatrical...The cast of three, under Lisa Peterson’s direction, work hard and effectively to make this show a 90-minute delight...I have to admit that after seeing Louis ride on the back of a giant sea turtle, I was willing to believe anything.

AM New York A-
(Matt Windman) The bulk of “Shipwrecked!” feels like children’s theater. While Rougemont, played by Michael Countryman, describes his supposed exploits to the audience over 90 minutes, Jeremy Bobb and Donnetta Lavinia Grays play sidekick characters ranging from Rougemont’s dog Bruno (complete with a wide, open tongue) to his young Aborigine wife...However, the play reaches an unexpectedly sobering climax...And it becomes clear that “Shipwrecked!” is far more surprising and complex than we originally suspected. But from the start, it is an invigorating, endlessly creative theatrical experience to be equally enjoyed by young and old.

NY Press A-
(Leonard Jacobs) A complete immersion into the meta-theatrical, and to thoroughly engaging effect. The play by Donald Margulies...isn’t a watershed event; it’s more a comic bouffe than a reach for Wagnerian heights. But it’s a tasty truffle from an inventive dramatist gifted at sniffing around...One could quibble with the occasional preciousness and cuteness of the piece, or one might express concerns over some stylistic inconsistencies that nearly send the play down the road to the Theater of the Ridiculous. But good storytelling is the goal, and the story, as de Rougemont might have said, must be told.

CurtainUp B+
(Elyse Sommer) May bring back the days of the radio play and Irene Wicker the beloved Singing Lady and story teller. The degree to which you'll be astonished depends on your willingness to tap into your eight-year-old self...However, even the most sophisticated theatergoer will be astonished, and charmed, Michael Countryman as de Rougemont— whether as a sickly child, an adventurer, a literary celebrity or a defiant dreamer in the face of failure. Further astonishment, and delight, is provided by Jeremy Bobb and Donnetta Lavinia Grays...The pair segues from character to character with timing that is mind boggling...For all the excellence of the performances and the impressively imaginative staging, Shipwrecked, calls on us to be star-gazers a bit longer than necessary. I for one would not have minded having de Rougmont ride off on his turtle at least ten minutes sooner.

Hartford Courant B+
(Malcolm Johnson) Countryman brings a kind of absurd heroism to the adventurer. It is a highly engaging performance in a production that rarely sags. This is an unsual [sic] play for Margulies, best known for contemporary works like "Dinner With Friends" and "Sight Unseen." "Shipwrecked" takes him in a new direction, and will most likely prove popular with regional theaters around the country.

New Yorker B+
A delightful take on the nineteenth-century adventure tale...The piece, zany as it is, never crosses into parody; rather, it spins Rougement’s prim narration (“I laughed, with bitter irony!”) into a warm, oddball homage to a genre that Margulies clearly adores.

DC Theatre Scene B+
(Richard Seff) Staged by Lisa Peterson with great imagination and spirit...That Louis turns out to have enough imagination to turn the truth of his rather sordid tale into a grand and great adventure, does not make us think less of him, for he’s brightened our day in a dozen small ways by sharing his hopes and dreams with us. Tiny Ms. Grays is fun as the captain of a ship, as Louis’ mother, as Louis’ wife, and as various natural sounds. But it is Mr. Bobb who absolutely convinced me not only that he was a dog, but managed to give that dog as many characteristics as any well drawn character of the human persuasion.

New York Times B
(Charles Isherwood) [An] amiable but featherweight frolic, which is probably best suited to children who are still susceptible to the magic of bedtime stories, or not yet turned into obsessed adepts at video gaming...As the chapters whiz by, the bewhiskered and bright-eyed Mr. Countryman creates a lively portrait of a man whose friendly gusto helps you overlook the sometimes generic-feeling nature of his wild peregrinations...[Margulies] also prefers to leave shrouded in mystery any thorny questions of his hero’s ethics or motivations, providing only a fig leaf of psychology rather than thoroughly anatomizing Louis’s mania.

American Theatre Web B
(Andy Propst) It would take a person with a pretty stony heart to resist the charm exuded by Michael Countryman in Donald Margulies' theatrical seafaring adventure...Countryman, playing Rougemont, bursts with a sort of vivacity and innocence that's generally found only in children who have not yet reached puberty...Margulies has a surprise or two stowed below deck...The final third of "Shipwrecked" does indeed atone for languors that theatergoers may experience along Louis' journey, and regardless of the slow trade winds that may buffet the play, there's always Countryman's buoyant performance as the young man who endures all that life throws at him.

Backstage B
(Lisa Jo Sagolla) Because it's clear from the get-go that the pretentious central character is a phony, one never becomes heartily invested in his story, so it is only with uninvolved detachment that one appreciates the imaginative efforts to dramatize his life...Margulies' cleverly crafted play underlines the contrived essence of theatrical storytelling, with de Rougemont (Michael Countryman) shifting back and forth between narrating and acting out his made-up escapades. He is ably assisted by two hard-working supporting players (Donnetta Lavinia Grays and Jeremy Bobb)...While the play toys intelligently with notions of imagination and truth and is bustlingly directed by Lisa Peterson, the overtly engineered proceedings are only ensnaring for about an hour of the 90-minute production.

EDGE NY B
(Ellen Wernecke) Shipwrecked! An Entertainment begs to sweep the audience away on a fantastic voyage, but its pull is just a little gentle to accomplish that.

New York Post B-
(Frank Scheck) For me, a little bit of this sort of whimsical artifice goes a long way and the 90-minute proceedings, skillfully directed by Lisa Peterson, began to pale long before their conclusion. Countryman is absolutely terrific, delivering a highly physical turn that at one point even includes some impressive acrobatics. Even while delivering the tale in masterfully compelling style, he subtly conveys the poignancy underlying de Rougemont's desperate need for attention.

Time Out NY B-
(David Cote) Energetic (if twee)...For younger spectators, this may prove an amusing spectacle, but adults could chafe at the earnestness of Margulies’s story-theater approach. Still, any entertainment that ends with a guy riding a giant sea turtle on an antique revolving stage can’t be all bad.

Lighting & Sound America C+
(David Barbour) Singular, eccentric, and thoroughly quizzical...[Margulies'] approach avoids the most interesting part of the story, which involves Louis' character and motivations, and, therefore, his downfall lacks any real payoff...Lisa Peterson's production is gracefulness itself, with Louis' narration aided and abetted by two actors and four stagehands who deploy a seemingly infinite number of handmade sound effects with the skill of professional Foley artists. (Anyone with an interest in sound design may want to see Shipwrecked...) Shipwrecked also provides that fine character actor Michael Countryman with a rare leading-role opportunity, and he proves to be an excellent host.

Just Shows To Go You C
(Patrick Lee) The conceit, which has the feeling of childrens’ theatre, is not without purpose - the story-theatre approach speaks to the resourcefulness of human imagination, a unifying theme in the show’s final half hour. Despite this and despite the efforts of the able cast, the play evaporates into thin air - there’s barely any tension in the story until it’s nearly over, and there isn’t enough variety in the presentation to otherwise hold our interest.

Talkin' Broadway D-
(Matthew Murray) The diminutive, dumbed-down theatrical epic must be here to stay...Shipwrecked! is just sloppy...As was the case with The 39 Steps and Around the World in 80 Days, the jagged nature of this production prevents easily assimilation of it if you try to connect with it intellectually or emotionally. Margulies and Peterson can’t, and shouldn’t, be excused so many basic mistakes merely because they were aiming so low. There’s no reason for so incomprehensible a timeline, for so many inconsistencies to impede a potentially fascinating examination of whether de Rougemont was apathetic, deceitful, a raving loon, or - just maybe - marginally truthful...Countryman is a natural-born narrator, but at best blandly compelling.

Bloomberg A+ 14; Variety A 13; AP A 13; VV A 13; TheaterMania A 13; Total Theater A 13; AMNY A- 12; NY Press A- 12; CU B+ 11; HC B+ 11; New Yorker B+ 11; DCTS B+ 11; NYT B 10; ATW B 10; BS 10; EDGENY B 10; NYP B- 9; TONY B- 9; L&SA C+ 8; JSTGY C 7; TB D- 3; 223/21=10.62 (B+)

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Dividing the Estate

GRADE: B+

By Horton Foote. Dir. Michael Wilson. Booth Theatre. (CLOSED)

Though the tone of the praise is occasionally more reverent than revved-up, critics mostly hail Horton Foote's old-fashioned family comedy, transferred from last season's acclaimed Off-Broadway run at Primary Stages, for its sensitive humanism, the performances—particularly those of Elizabeth Ashley and Hallie Foote, the playwright's daughter—and its uncanny relevance to the current economic crisis. NOTE: The Hartford Courant's review was not graded, as it contained no discernible signs of evaluation.

Wall Street Journal A+
(Terry Teachout) It's a bitingly macabre comedy about a family of Texans who've been sponging off the money of their mother (Elizabeth Ashley) for so long that they've forgotten how to live their own lives...The best show now playing on Broadway, give or take Gypsy. Not only is it at least as good a play as August: Osage County, but this production, directed by Michael Wilson, is a stunner, a gorgeous piece of ensemble theater in which nobody puts a foot wrong.

The New York Times A
(Ben Brantley) Safely distanced by footlights, someone like Mary Jo, one of three squabbling siblings in Horton Foote’s tart and delicious Dividing the Estate, is heaven to be with. As played with true comic genius by Hallie Foote, the covetous, calculating Mary Jo has absolutely no sense of humor. But it’s hard to think of anyone on a Broadway stage right now...who’s funnier...This production...has ripened into an ideally balanced ensemble piece, with acting that matches and magnifies Mr. Foote’s slyly and acutely observant writing. A year ago Dividing the Estate was good, but a tad shaky in tone. This latest incarnation reveals it to be one of the masterworks of the 92-year-old Mr. Foote.

New York Post A
(Frank Scheck) This deeply humanistic and funny play is old-fashioned in the best sense. Director Michael Wilson's assured production features a wonderful ensemble cast whose seamless work feels even more lived-in than it did earlier...With death intruding not once but twice, there's an undeniable Chekhovian air to the proceedings. But it's alleviated by the richly comic, Southern-flavored dialogue and Foote's obvious empathy for all of his characters, even when they're behaving badly.

Bloomberg News A
(John Simon) Foote has over many years shown his ability to conjure up Texas milieus with his plays and screenplays redolent of everyday tragicomedy...Dividing the Estate is easily as good as, if not better than, his best earlier work...Dividing the Estate will draw you into its drawing room and the shadows beyond with the theatrical equivalent of a page- turner, capturing your undivided attention as you hang on its teasing turmoil in guiltlessly glad complicity.

Newsday A
(Linda Winer) Old-fashioned but bracingly unsentimental...Foote - 92 and definitely still counting - keeps adding to his remarkable stack of more than 60 intricately naturalistic scripts. Highlights in this one include his actress-daughter Hallie Foote, who descends on her mama's big old house with skinny-lipped buzz saw desperation. "I want everything," she snaps. "What do you want?"

Associated Press A
(Michael Kuchwara) Horton Foote's hilariously perceptive take on what good old-fashioned greed does to one cash-strapped Texas family...And while you think you may be getting a laundry lists of incidents recited by the more senior members of the household, the playwright has something more on his mind...There is a generosity of spirit in Foote's handiwork. He embraces all his creations, even the most mean-spirited of them. They are part of the fabric of everyday life in a small Texas town where such things as family squabbles over money are regular occurrences. And in Dividing the Estate, Foote manages to make them highly theatrical.

Backstage A
(David Sheward) There are showy parts and subtle ones, all played with honesty and precision and directed by Michael Wilson with a perfect balance of verisimilitude and theatricality...The play will probably turn up on the schedules of many regional and community theatres thanks to its single set (charmingly realized here by Jeff Cowie) and myriad meaty roles. Actors should take a gander for future employment opportunities and to see one of our finest authors near the top of his form.

Theatermania A
(Barbara & Scott Siegel) This work is not the little, quiet, and delicate dissection of Southern life and the people who live it that we've come to expect from this celebrated playwright. Instead, it's a southern gothic comedy about family and avarice that is full of well-earned belly-laughs. Who knew Foote could be this funny?

NY Observer A
(John Heilpern) Foote disproves the generalization that the skills of successful playwrights are at their juiciest in youth. To the contrary, the signs are that Mr. Foote’s energy and talent are unflagging...Mr. Foote’s writing is characterized by an unmodish sense of compassion and emotional restraint, and his language is everyday...The big ensemble of Dividing the Estate is well directed by Michael Wilson, who captures the shifting mood and nuances of the play beautifully.

New Yorker A
Horton Foote’s play about a Texas clan squabbling over finances moves to Broadway, and just in time: money-minded audiences will be pleased to know that the estate tax can be funny...What makes the play so charmingly batty is its obsessive-compulsive focus. The characters argue incessantly about dividing the estate, and not even the intrusion of death can stop them. Shrewd and admirably restrained, the play (directed by Michael Wilson) is quietly potent in its suggestion that cash is thicker than blood.

Variety A-
(David Rooney) A tart Chekhovian elegy for a disappearing way of life and a gentle skewering of complacent privilege...The well-worn scenario is familiar from more than one chestnut of Southern drama. But the playwright's work, as always, is distinguished by the delicate brushstrokes of his characterizations, making seasoned stereotypes human and giving even the most venal of them some hint of redeeming vulnerability. Perhaps even more essential to the old-fashioned play's appeal is Foote's deep understanding of the personalities within a precisely defined subculture. There's an exquisite balance between insidiousness and charm in this vipers' nest, and between affectionate anecdote and malicious gossip in their chatter.

The Record A-
(Robert Feldberg) Unlike many of Foote's plays, which have an aura of sad frustration, Dividing the Estate is a lively comedy, small in scale but with a surprising number of big laughs...Under the deft direction of Michael Wilson, Dividing the Estate glides along at an easy, unforced pace, with flavorful performances all around...The evening's highlight, though, is Hallie Foote, the playwright's daughter...Foote delivers a virtuoso comic performance that's worth the price of admission. Really.

The Daily News B+
(Joe Dziemianowicz) Ham, anyone? It's on the dinner table and at center stage in Horton Foote's Dividing the Estate, a lighthearted look at a fractious family facing financial straits and—Lord above!—each another...Under the deft direction of Michael Wilson, the actors are keener and the handsome production feels tighter...It's not as profound or ambitious as Broadway's other multigenerational melee, August: Osage County, but Foote's fine play does go down easy.

Time Out NY B+
(Adam Feldman) The eternally spry Horton Foote does a nimble Texas two-step in Dividing the Estate. Half the play is a leisurely, courtly, astutely observed portrait of cultural and generational change; the other half is a quick, lively comedy of manners and manors in decline...[Hallie] Foote—a specialist in her father’s work—pickpocketed the show Off Broadway as the tense and greedy Mary Jo, and now openly mugs it...But why complain? Foote is giving the comic performance of the season.

AM New York B+
(Matt Windman) In addition to its hearty laughs, Dividing the Estate is in fact a brilliant dissection of greedy family politics and the out-of-control economics that have caused our country’s current recession...Husky-voiced Elizabeth Ashley is stunning as she physically transforms herself into a female version of Big Daddy from Cat on a Hot Tin Roof...Michael Wilson’s production well-cast production displays pitch-perfect comic timing and nuanced characterization.

Nytheatre.com B+
(Martin Denton) In some ways, [Foote has] written the timeliest comedy possible, though stylistically it feels like a vestige of a long-ago age, the one Stella and Doug grew up in, when ladies always wore hats and gloves and one lifted one's spirits with a good old-fashioned hymn like "Rock of Ages"...Michael Wilson's staging feels a bit less urgent than it did last year; how much of this, I wondered, is due to the larger distances the actors now must traverse on the Booth Theatre stage? Foote has cut his play some since last year, too, excising at least one exchange that I enjoyed so well that I quoted it in my review.

Village Voice B
(Michael Feingold) A reassuringly solid piece of theatrical furniture offering both regional style and moderate comic flair. Foote's tragicomic tale of a land-poor Texas family's fiscal woes now looks prophetic as well as quaintly sturdy...As played under Michael Wilson's direction, everything onstage seems natural, especially Penny Fuller and Hallie Foote as the two bickering sisters. Only Elizabeth Ashley's cane-thumping matriarch seems as exaggerated on Broadway as it did in the show's Off-Broadway unveiling last season.

Philadelphia Inquirer B
(Howard Shapiro) So much family history runs through Horton Foote's comedy Dividing the Estate, so much who-died-how and who-dissed-whom, that it threatens to suffocate the plot...Given the opportunities for zingers, the play itself could be more amusing. Still, its character development gives Dividing the Estate the hook to hold us through an evening that examines tax dodges and falling land sales and, more to the point, the greed that sets a generation of beneficiaries apart from its forebears. The play uneasily straddles the divide between comedy and caustic comment, on Jeff Cowie's detailed and elegant multi-room estate set. What balance it has comes from a 13-member cast that gives the play a starkly realistic feel.

Talkin' Broadway B
(Matthew Murray) When Primary Stages presented the show in the fall of 2007 with largely the same cast, it made a virtue of compactness...But rather than becoming more powerful and hilariously tragic in its transfer, gaining strength and topical relevance from the imploding stock market and the catastrophic housing crisis too reminiscent of the Gordons' Texas turmoil of 20 years ago, Dividing the Estate has grown colder and more distant...Many of the performances that were impeccably cut jewels Off-Broadway have had facets cracked by the now-necessary shouting and by the wear and tear of time.

USA Today C+
(Elysa Gardner) The folks we meet in Estate...can be immensely irritating, but they're not, well, bad people—or, truth be told, terribly interesting ones. That is the conundrum facing Michael Wilson, the director of this Lincoln Center Theater production, and his cast. If Estate's genial spirit is key to its charm, its lack of bite poses a considerable challenge...Wilson culls fine, unfussy performances from the company...Though these actors haven't the ingredients to cook up a truly meaty evening of theater, their resourcefulness—and Foote's grace—provide a mild kick.


The Journal News C-
(Jacques Le Sourd) Basically, a family sits around the dinner table, and its members claw at each other verbally for a couple of hours...You'll probably spend at least the first third of the play figuring out all the familial relationships in a large cast. These are not the fun Southerners of Tennessee Williams, who drink a lot. These people are abstemious, which makes them considerably more boring than other species of characters.

New York D+
(Stephanie Zacharek) The characters speak urgently and repeatedly about the need to “divaaahd the estate”—it takes them a while to get the phrase out, although not quite as long as it takes to actually divide the estate. The idea is that we’ll laugh at the family’s eccentricities and foibles, even as we sense their suffering...The whole enterprise has the feeling of a worn-out rug that’s been hung up for beating too many times. Dividing the Estate is harmless fun, which is good news only for those who fear being harmed by fun.

Wall Street Journal A+ 14; The New York Times A 13; New York Post A 13; Bloomberg News A 13; Associated Press A 13; Backstage A 13; ny Observer A 13; Theatermania A 13; New Yorker A 13; Variety A- 12; The Record A- 12; The Daily News B+ 11; TONY B+ 11; AM New York B+ 11; Nytheatre.com B+ 11; Village Voice B 10; Philadelphia Inquirer B 10; Talkin' Broadway B 10; USA Today C+ 8; Journal News C- 6; New York D+ 5; TOTAL: 248 / 22 = 11.27 (B+)

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Love Child

GRADE: B

By Daniel Jenkins and Robert Stanton. Dir. Carl Forsman. Primary Stages at 59E59. (CLOSED)

Critics marvelled at the versatility of actor/writers Daniel Jenkins and Robert Stanton, whose two-man show depicts a troubled Off-Off-Broadway production of Euripides' obscure Ion, though a few quibbled with the script's ambitions.

Associated Press A+
(Jennifer Farrar) One of the funniest plays-about-a-play that you will see involves two men literally spinning from one character into the next...The duo deftly portray about 10 characters apiece with no costume changes, many of them near-simultaneously, while also vocally providing the sound effects...Despite an increasingly hectic pace, both actors display an endless supply of comedic flair while keeping multiple personas separate.

The New York Times A
(Neil Genzlinger) Daniel Jenkins and Robert Stanton have been in some high-profile, high-priced shows on Broadway, but it’s hard to imagine that they have ever had more fun than they’re having now in Love Child, a delicious $15-a-ticket romp of their own making...Seemingly every accent, gesture and facial tic in the actors’ respective kit bags is called into service to tell the story...[It] would be all just very skilled gimmickry if not for the story, which is a well-turned yarn in its own right.

Variety A
(Mark Blankenship) Jenkins and Stanton, both veteran character actors, stoke the imagination with their remarkable physical and vocal precision. And their perfs have the same deranged wit as their writing...Credit director Carl Forsman, a.d. of Keen Company, for capturing the emotional nuance of the writing. While the thesps jump from character to character, the helmer keeps the pace frantic in the funniest bits and injects stillness just when we're supposed to pay attention.

The New Yorker A
(Unsigned) Daniel Jenkins and Robert Stanton, both successful Broadway actors, expertly play at least twelve characters between them in this bare-bones but hilarious farce...Once onstage, the family of over-the-top thespians can’t separate their own stories from the script, and astounding truths emerge.

TheaterMania B
(Dan Balcazo) Several of the characters initially come across as near-caricatures. But while some remain underdeveloped, the major ones...become more nuanced as the show continues and you find out more of their back story...Both actors have superb comic timing and an easy rapport with one another...On the downside, there are so many characters introduced in such a short span of time that it's difficult to keep track of them all...There are also some jokes that fail to land...Still, the affection that Jenkins and Stanton pour into their creations is infectious.

Curtain Up B+
(Elyse Sommer) [It] isn't serious competition to the likes of Boeing, Boeing but Love Child is also a farce. However, it relies on the escalating zaniness and the speedy and, at times almost simultaneous, back and forth jumps among some twenty character to substitute for a conventional farce's slamming doors. For all its barest of bare bones structure and the emphasis on lots of laughs, the play also insists on donning a serio-comic double mask, and the result is poignant but also something of a mixed bag.

Talkin' Broadway B+
(Matthew Murray) It gives Jenkins and Stanton ideal opportunities for showcasing their serious comic acting chops. The writing of this breezy 90-minute outing...is less sure, but most of the time you'll be laughing too much to care...It doesn't take long after the start of the performance-within-the-performance for both Love Childs to lapse into utter ridiculousness...While events are supposed to rise to a certain Hellenistic level of improbability, the revelations leave you constantly wondering "What's next?"...They're much more successful at evoking love and affection for the greater theatrical family.

Talk Entertainment C-
(Oscar E Moore) I am still reeling at the memory of two fine, dexterous, energetic actors - Daniel Jenkins and Robert Stanton - playing a variety of roles - twisting and twirling and turning as directed by Carl Forsman, becoming this one and then that one and then this one again or is it that one - in the blink of an eye - while taking turns sitting on one of the six mismatched chairs...Love Child might have been better off tackling Much Ado About Nothing or putting itself up for adoption.

AP A+ 14; NY Times A 13; Variety A 13; New Yorker A 13; Talkin' Broadway B+ 11; Curtain Up B+ 11; TheaterMania B 10; Talk Entertainment C- 6; TOTAL: 91 / 8 = 11.38 (B+)

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